Dutchman will surf from London to Paris to raise awareness of plastic waste

To call on France to introduce a deposit on plastic bottles, Dutchman Merijn Tinga will surf from London to Paris on his windsurfing board starting Saturday morning. It is Tinga's tenth trip to raise awareness of solutions to plastic waste. Along the chalk cliffs of the English Channel, the Dutchman will surf 850 kilometers to the Seine in around 19 days.

The French say that they will achieve their plastic waste reduction targets by 2029 even without a deposit system, says Tinga. "But of course that won't happen." In Paris, he will be welcomed by Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Together, they will hold a conference on waste on the evening of his arrival.

On Friday, the Plastic Soup surfer was welcomed at the Dutch Embassy in London just before his surf trip to Paris, Karel van Oosterom, ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, announced on X.

Special to welcome the Plastic Soup Surfer Merijn Tinga at the Embassy just before he starts on his surf trip from London to Paris, countering plastic and promoting deposit scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans. pic.twitter.com/N8o8LIWuA7

— Karel van Oosterom (@KvanOosterom) June 21, 2024

Tinga has also called on countries to introduce a deposit on plastic bottles on previous surfing expeditions. In 2023, for example, he traveled from Oslo to London, a distance of 1,800 kilometers. The British have been talking about introducing a deposit for years. At the time, the plan was to introduce the deposit in 2025. Tinga even tried to prevent the UK from doing so. However, the introduction has since been postponed to 2027.

Every day, Tinga paddles around 40 kilometers. At night, he takes his surfboard to the shore and builds a canopy out of his sail to sleep under. Ultimately, the windsurfer and biologist hopes to achieve a breakthrough in France. "At the moment, plastic waste from the Seine ends up on our coasts or even as far away as Scandinavia via the ocean currents," he says.